Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-08
SHALL 1T BECOME RESPECTABLE, OR
REMAIN ODI0USl

SHALL IT BECOME RESPECTABLE, OR
REMAIN 0DI0Us!
A correspondent whose opinions are en-
titled to respect, and whose partisanship is
strong, asks why we assail bossism if it is
the natural product of the American sys-
TEN ? While, however, not asserting that
to be true, his inquiry justifes the belief
that he looks upon it as the evolution of
political system not possible to be changed
The response to the suggestion is, simply
that the premise is untrue. That bossism
is an outgrowth of our system is admitted
but it is abnormal and ulcerous. 1t in
dieates not the hopelessness of the case,
but the fact that the blood needs the ad-
ministration of a corrective. Further on,
our correspondent, with some asperity,
asks if the rule of the boss is the result of
the acquiescence of the people, why should
they complain; and if it is not true that
when they consent to his management, ac-
cept his labors for party and avail of his
skilled disciplinary methods, that they
thereby estop themselves from murmur-
ing, possessing, as they do, the power to
revoke at will the control granted?
The inquiry gives the question away.
The failure to do duty in any sphere of
activity invariably breeds ills That the
peoply by neglect of public duties have
consented to bossism, is in a sense true, but
that they are thereby barred from COM
plant, is not. Were the methods of the
boss iustifable, and the results contribu-
tive to political purity, he would not be a
boss," but affirmatively the representative
of the majority of the people. But, says
our correspondent, there always existed
leaders and managers, and they always
viii, of necessity, exist. They are indis-
penSable in organization, and as essential
as any other part of political machinery.
But il, for the sake of the argument, we
admit this to be true, it does not follow
that the leader shall be eonscienceless,
INSCRIPTIONS, yote-buying, nomination.
selling, egislation-commission boss, deal
ing in the human cattle that swarm from
the slums, and making merchandise of the
prerogatives of freemen. In the methods
and agencies employed are the roots of the
evil. These methods are not illustrative
of a representative system they do not
voice the judgment or stand for the con-
science of the majority, and are, therefore,
undemocratic Whatever is urdemocratie
is antagonistic to a republican form of gov
eminent, and it follows that boss methods
are destructive of American institutions.
1t is not so much because of the venal-
ity of men, the corruption of officials, the
weakness of Lawmakers, that many are
led to express their nervous doubts of the
experiment of Republic proving success
full, as because Of the bossism thai stands
behind these evils, and, by obstruc.ing the
path of reform, makes its ways difficult
to tread When sinister elements control
the machinery of party, the mediums of
protest are usurped, and the machinery of
organization, that in itself is wise and be-
neGeent, is made baneful, and impotent to
respond to the demands of the people. This
control has become so autocratic and dis
dainful that citizens desiring to compete
.-.tL A., II >-a,. Sc Al 1900 G.. - u, 80, =, E
trust and honor, cannot secure even the
poor privilege of having their names pre-
sented to their party conventions.
The dread of facing Lawmakers that falls
upon the people bienniaIly is due to the
universal conviction that behind i'll legis-
lation is all-powerful political bossism,
shielding the unworthy legislator from
the people To call the venal legislator,
the mortgaged municipal officer, or the
vicious State administrator to account, is
Of little avail, since such action is only in
the nature of treatment of symptoms. To
assail the outward manifestations of in
ternal disease is the most imbecile
of methods for the removal of its causes.
Now and then, in their indignation, the
people, by sudden revolts, do work reforms
that cause temporary disappearance of the
symptoms, and there is thus created fatal
confidence that the disease itself has
ceased Indeed, bossisrn prefers that there
should be occasional revolts, since these
intermittent manifestations are unfailing
evidences that the seat of the evil is not to
be probed.
So we have said repeated that Topping
off of twigs viii not kill the tree, that
bolts and spasmodic breaks and short
lived independent movements are not in
the direction of true reform. If bossism
Is to be extirpated, it viii only be done BY
uprooting the evil, and the complete ex-
traction from political soil of the remotest
threads Of its tap-root. This IS to be done
not only within party, but by an absolute
revolution of the ideas Of duty-deing in
American society. Men must be brought
to see that performance of duty as a citi-
zen is superior to the duty done as par
tisan; that he is the best partisan who is
the most active in his capacity as a constit-
rent Of good society, and he is the enemy Of